Notorious G4S to get housing contract in north east

Background:

People arriving in the UK in search of sanctuary were once able to access welfare benefits and council housing on the basis of need, like people already living in the UK, but a series of harsh legislation brought in from 1996 onwards withdrew this, and, after attempts by the government to leave all new arrivals destitute were ruled unlawful, created a separate system for support for people seeking sanctuary.

These changes, setting up a parallel system, can be seen as a divide-and-rule tactic, segregating people seeking sanctuary from other council house tenants and welfare claimants.

At the same time, this legislation paved the way for the privatisation of parts of the support service, services which were once public. The Institute for Race Relations, discussing the 1999 Asylum and Immigration Act, explains:

‘Lucrative contracts to house asylum seekers were frequently taken up by local authorities, sub-contracted to accommodation providers and then sub-contracted further to private landlords. The result was a housing system which in many instances was poorly regulated, substandard and unsafe’.

Private sector involvement has now increased, with local authority contracts being dropped in favour of contracts with 3 multinationals – Serco, Reliance and G4S – who have contracts between them covering the whole of the UK.

G4S

G4S, who are set to get the contract for the north east, are the world’s largest security company and have contracts to transport, detain and imprison throughout the world.

G4S are involved in court security, prisoner transport and electronic tagging, and have the contract for security at the Olympic Games in London. G4S have received criticism recently for their involvement in the border security industry in Palestine.

Secure connections…

This and many more of the horrors of G4S were highlighted by protesters in Tucson, Arizona, who took action last year to expose the G4s’ profiteering from misery and suffering, saying ‘G4S not only reaps the profits of border enforcement, they also shape public policy to criminalize immigrants and ensure a steady stream of people to fill their buses and jails’.

A report by UNI Property Services and Alliance for Justice at Group 4 Securicor in 2007, highlighted frequent violations of labour laws by G4S in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa and brought attention to the racism, poverty wages, and oppression faced by people employed by G4S in those countries.

Securing whose world?

The example of G4S illustrates the practices that are part and parcel of the current economic system, a system based on ‘securing the world’ for the privileged few – increasing their power, privilege and wealth at the expense of the many.